New Recipes

Malaysian Fried Banana Fritters (Kuih Kodok)

After reading Princess Journals’ fried banana the other day, I knew that I just had to make some myself. While I like fried banana fritters or goreng pisang, I lovekuih kodok. I do not know the best way to name kuih kodok in English, but they are basically bananas all mashed up with flour, eggs, sugar, and then deep fried. They are usually round in shape but with uneven surface, hence the name kodok, meaning toad in Malay language.

If you look at my kuih kodok, they were not round in the slightest sense. Well, if anything, they were “disfigured” and came with various shapes and forms. (I like my kuih kodok slightly softer; I used lesser flour so the shapes were irregular.)

In Malaysia, pisang awak (the ones with black seeds inside the flesh) is often used for kuih kodok. According to my late grandmother, pisang awak is the best banana for deep frying. I used regular Dole bananas commonly found in food stores and they turned out fantastic nonetheless…

If you are tired of banana bread or banana cakes, try this new recipe, ala Rasa Malaysia style.

Another name for kuih kodok is cekodok pisang. Yummy and as you can see very,very easy to make. It’s not necessary to add egg just make sure add more bananas and a pinch of salt so that they will be soft and fragrant.
My nephew always dip his cekodok in sugar before eating them.

Oh yes! We had to make these at school in the Convent *grin*, I noticed when we made it with some kind of pisang, maybe pisang awak, it would have purple swirls and stripes in it. Who knows why? But it was attractive, fragrant and I ate all of mine before I went home. Yours looks delicious, of course!

I’ve been left out in the blue as much as Ben. You mean all these years there’s been one more Malaysian delicacy I’ve yet to try? Betul-betul katak di bawah tempurung lah I! (No pun intended for those of you who read Malay.)

This reminds me of my uni days (more accurately, nights) when we’d make this as a late-night snack after hours of studying (ahem!). :-) We’ll make them, then ‘jemput’ all the floor-mates to come share them!

noooooooooooo, jemput-jemput and kuih kodok are two different things! jemput-jemput is basically flour with assorted ingredients like sliced chillies and/or sliced onions and/or anchovies. jemput-jemput is never -NEVER- with bananas. hahaha. some malay people call it cengkodok. my family call it cengkodok. i never knew why… maybe you should add some history titbits of these food? haha.

Sasi – i Love the idea of the sprinkle of icing sugar on it :). hey try adding gula melaka chips -its like choclate chips but only gula melaka malaysian style :) My dad always makes em for us :) Am gonna ask him to do it again . YOu Kuih Kodok looks great

p.s i have my own rating system Hope you dont mind :) whereby 5* is MAX

Beside jemput2 or kuih kodok, we Malay also call it cekodok. Many names and yet still the same. We used to have it for breakfast or for tea times. Here in Perth, I even make it for my kiddies lunch box. They like it hard but I like mine soft. I used normal banana because we didnt have any other banana. At one time banana was so expensive here, it was like gold. Luckily now the price has gone down

If You use water with icecubes in the batter the result will be far more crispy than without – same process as for swedish waffels.Let the icecubes melt in the mixture while wipping. Then dip in the bananas and fry.

Hi Rasa Malaysia,i foudn you thru Penang Hokkien Podcast. i must tell i really love your blog and very excited abt ur recipes. I am not good at Malaysian cooking, but wth ur recepes, it helps a lot. Thank you so much, and plc continue to share more. (^-^)

I’d agree with the commentator who said that Americans would probably call this a banana fritter — particularly because of the mashed banana. I somehow missed this during my time in Malaysia as well, just seeing pisang goreng and roti pisang. Is it unique to Penang and northern Malaysia, maybe?

As for the name “toad cake,” that’s a bit reminiscent of the English dish toad in the hole — basically Yorkshire pudding with bits of sausage playing the role of the toads. I first came across that dish in the Roald Dahl book, Danny Champion of the World and the book and toad in the hole remain family favorites — along with Kampung Boy of course.

My favorite Malaysian sweet though is the pandan flavored pancake wrapped around coconut and gula melaka — but I can’t remember what it was called or find whether you have a recipe for it here. Anybody know what I mean?

this is one of my fav teatime/supper snack. i call it cengkodok pisang hehe. i like it to be a liiiiitle hard and with a sprinkle of salt..ooh Yummy!and i like the bigger type of cengkodok too where they put soda bicarb or something in it :P

Thanks for the recipe. I made it tonight for iftaar. My husband and I find it a bit too doughy and not sweet enough, perhaps the organic banana that I used are not that sweet in U.S. I will use less flour and add a bit more sugar if I were to make it again next time.

Oh my. I am very surprised this recipe can be found all over Southeast Asia. Here in the Philippines, we call these fritters “Maruya,” but we don’t mash the bananas, we slice them instead. Then we sprinkle sugar on top.

Hey, just want to share,one secret ingredient if you want the cekocok/Kuih kodok round in shape, just put like a teaspoon or so of baking powder, it will puff and get rounder. And also if you want harder texture mix some tepung beras. Learned it from my mum.

Hi, I just tried it. Same as Autumn, it wasn’t soft and mushy inside. Very doughy and tasted more of flour than banana. Also, how much water did you add inside? I used 1/3 of your portion for everything and added less than 100ml water and it was very “battery” and totally unable to be moulded into any shape. Just flat as can be.

I love cokodok, thats what my family calls them.. I like them soft but not flat looking, maybe a bit rounder in shape, and slightly dark brown in colour (We fry them a little longer). I would always take like one or two handsful of cokodok in a bowl and have it while watching tv.. Yet I still want more! Crazy isnt it? A cokodok maniac haha.. Your photos makes my mouth water already..

Thank you so much for the recipe.My turn out great,Not to mushy if you add more flour ,I add salt to the recipe and i smash the banana up before i add the flour and the sugar and other stuff,I also add cut banana to it so it will have chucks of banana.My mom use to make it for me when i was a kid after school.So it bring ms joy to eat them again,In Singapore we called it jemput jemput in my house and Pisang Goreng is fry banana with a batter and fry-ed as well .Any ways thank you